SOME voters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State’s capital, have accused the Nigeria Police Force of disrupting the collation of results during the ongoing local government elections in the state.
According to Channels Television, voters at the Ward 19 Elekahia Collation Centre in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area claimed that the police arrived, fired shots and used teargas against them.
Several ballot papers were also said to have been scattered at the entrance of the collation centre.
Speaking with Channels TV, some of the voters said the voting process was already over and counting concluded before the disruption.
While it reported that no police officer was at the scene to give the account of what transpired, the Rivers State Police Command promised Channels to release an official statement on the incident.
Also, when The ICIR contacted the Rivers State Police public relations officer, Trac Iringe-Koko, she asked if she could get back to us.
She said “Can I get back to you? Let me get the details of the incident.”
Earlier today, The ICIR reported that the voting process began in Rivers following a series of back-and-forths in the build-up to the election.
The exercise began as the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) insisted there was no going back on the election, despite a Federal High Court in Abuja stopping it.
The ICIR reported that the inspector-general of police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, had ordered the increased deployment of personnel to beef up security in the state despite the police withdrawal from the exercise.
In a judgement in July, the Supreme Court granted the 774 LGAs in the country financial autonomy.
According to the court ruling, it was unconstitutional for the state government to hold onto or manage the affairs of the LGAs and their funds.
Going by this judgment, many states like Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti and others, have begun to conduct elections scrapping the caretaker committees they had previously appointed to allow voters to decide their local government leaders.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M